Last month I wrote about the Romeike family, a German family of homeschoolers that was given the choice to abandon their religious convictions or lose custody of their children. Although the family is seeking asylum in the U.S., President Obama’s Justice Department has argued that the family should be denied refugee status based on their contention that governments may legitimately use its authority to force parents to send their kids to government-sanctioned schools.

Nick Gillespie of Reason.tv talked to Mike Donnelly, a lawyer for the Home School Legal Defense Association and a representative for the Romeike family, about the case and the history of anti-homeschooling laws in Germany.